Jennifer Azzi took a circuitous route to a basketball career in front of family and friends in the United States. After six seasons in Europe, the two-time Olympic veteran has finally found a familiar place to show off her world-class game -- the San Francisco Bay Area, where she starred at Stanford for Coach Tara VanDerveer.
Azzi was the unquestioned leader of the 1990 Stanford team that won the NCAA National Championship. 'That was a great thrill of my life, winning that championship. It proved that the work that went into it was definitely worth it,' she said.
But if she wanted to keep playing the game she had mastered, she couldn't stay in the United States. The only professional leagues were overseas, so Azzi went to Europe. Her post-graduate grand tour landed her in Spain, Italy and Yugoslovia, among others, and not surprisingly, she continued to be an elite player. She was named MVP one year after averaging nearly 32 points a game. 'Travelling through Europe and living in the different cities was a great experience but I was looking forward to the chance to play back in front of my family and friends in the United States,' Azzi said.
She did play a little in the U.S., as an alternate on the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team and a key member of the gold-medal 1996 squad. Azzi didn't start, as her good friends Teresa Edwards and Dawn Staley played a lot more than she did -- but it did not diminish her enthusisam for winning the gold.
'That was incredible,' she said in a recent interview. `You can never really put that into words. It was a great experience. It's not like playing for a college or professional team, it's playing for your country so you have so many millions of people cheering you on.'
That gold medal team kick-started two new professional leagues in the United States -- the first being the American Basketball League. From the beginning, Azzi was one of the major players in the ABL. She was one of the first marquee names to sign with the fledgling league, and like most of the Olympians, she stuck with the ABL even when the heavily hyped WBNA began waving big contracts in front of the top players.
That may have been a tough decision for some but Azzi didn't waver. 'It was never even a choice for me,' she said. `I think the three of us (Staley, Edwards and Azzi) were in the ABL from Day One, believed in the league and were willing to give it a try. Had the NBA started something earlier then maybe we would have done that. We wanted it then. We wanted support and somebody that was going to guarantee us support for the long term and not just after the Olympic success.'
So Azzi signed a two-year contract with the ABL in 1996 and was assigned to San Jose to help draw the enthusiastic Stanford fans down I-280 to the Laser games. But the fairy tale took a wrong turn in Portland when a severely dislocated shoulder knocked her out for the season after just 11 games.
She was disconsolate for the first month after her surgery on the shoulder. It was her first major injury and she was not sure how she was going to handle it. 'It took awhile before I felt like I could talk to people because I was upset about the injury. The support of the fans in San Jose as well as the rest of the ABL encouraged me to keep rehabilitating and come back for year number two.'
Those fans showed up en masse at the San Jose Arena for the Lasers' first home game, and 10,000 cheered her return. 'Opening Night was unbelievable experience for me in 1996,' Azzi said. `This year was even better. It just shows how much women's basketball continues to grow.'
After a rocky start, the second season is starting to reward her hard work. `It has been really good so far,' she said. `I have enjoyed the team. Even though we hit a little losing streak earlier, I don't think we ever broke down as a team. I think that has been something that has been important and I think will help us continue to win.'
The Lasers started the season at 5-12 but have won four of the last five to pull their record to 9-13. One reason for the resurgence was Coach Angela Beck's decision to move Azzi to the point and have rookie Kedra Holland-Corn start in her old two guard spot. That meant Azzi's former Stanford teammate Sonja Henning was relegated to the bench after starting since the first-ever Lasers' game.
`First of all I think Sonja is a great point guard,' said Azzi. `There is nothing I can take away from her. But I think coach Beck wanted the ball in my hands more, and I can do that at the point more than the two. I love to run and I think that is the type of team we have. We are not really a half-court, set-up type team. We have great athletes that all love to run. Just the type of game I like to play is what Coach Beck likes to coach.'
The change has worked, as the Lasers are making a push for the playoffs -- which wouldn't hurt the feelings of ABL officials. Azzi is one of the most recognizable figures in American women's basketball, and she did a lot of promotional work for the league while she was injured last year, and continues to do so this year.
In recognition of her importance to the league, her contract was extended through the year 2002 -- which, if nothing else, means that Azzi won't have to worry about trying to learn another foreign language just so she can keep playing basketball.
12/10/97
